PS101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Synesthesia, Inattentional Blindness, Sound
Document Summary
Sensation: detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by physical objects; occurs when energy in the environment or the body stimulates receptors in the sense organs. Perception: the process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information. Sense receptors: specialized cells that convert physical energy in the environment or the body to electrical energy that can be transmitted as nerve impulses to the brain. Smell, pressure, pain, extensions of sensory neurons. Vision, hearing, and taste specialized cells separated from neurons by synapses. Steps of conversion: scouts/receptors scan for activity, transmit what they learn to field officers/sensory neurons, report to command centre of generals/cells of the brain, determine what it all means. Sensory nerves use exactly the same form of communication. Doctrine of specific nerve energies: the principle that different sensory modalities exist because signals received by sense organs stimulate different nerve pathways leading to different areas of the brain.
